NJ-GOV 2021 megathread

[DaleCooper]

You know who should really be sweating tonight? Gretchen Whitmer.

There is no other explanation for the closeness of these results besides Murphy's strict Covid policies. He was a generic D Democrat and most of his policies didn't get people too angry, and Ciatarelli ran a competent but uninspired campaign.

It's almost like vaccinated people aren't particularly happy about having restrictions forced on them when they did the right thing months ago.

The worst of this was before the vaccines rolled out - keeping indoor dining shut indefinitely long after the crisis abated, for instance - but yeah, people are done with the fact that there doesn't seem to be an offramp here.

The crazy part is that a lot of Dems seem to WANT the pandemic to last forever. Getting vaccinated 10 times, triple masking, massively overestimating the risk of hospitalization/death, some even still refusing to go out and eat indoors or anything. It all looks hypochondriac and frankly insane to a lot of people. This thing isn't the Black Death. It sucks, but it mostly kills very old and very fat people, to be brutally honest. I get it's frustrating that a lot of loons still won't get vaxxed which would help speed up the process but smugly mocking them probably isn't helping. It just is nuts that this has become such a politicized, polarized culture war issue akin to abortion or something on both sides with no end in sight. America has gone off the deep end.

I agree with most of this, but what’s wrong with booster shots? People get flu shots every year, what’s the difference?

There's nothing wrong with them and I'd recommend old and vulnerable people get them, but the boosters are being tied to a never-ending pandemic mitigation policy from the federal government (and many state ones too) and that is rubbing people the wrong way. One of the best things Biden could do to immediately better his image is declare the pandemic over and once again emphasize that the vaccines are available and free for anyone who wants them.

[DaleCooper]

Murphy did all the supposedly super popular progressive stuff (legalized marijuana, raised taxes on the rich, $15 minimum wage, etc.) and it doesn't seem to have helped at all. Voters do not vote on policy; they vote on vibes. Seems bad for the long-term viability of democracy, IMO.

This has, of course, always been the case.

And it leaves Democrats with a problem which is at once simple and all too difficult to solve: their vibes are simply atrocious at the moment.

Those bickering over who’s progressive or moderate enough need to hear this. People vote based on feelings. The Democratic Party needs new blood, and to give a different impression to voters; policy and ideology are secondary to voters.

This is why Bernie is better electorally than AOC. AOC seems like a whiny socially far-leftist whereas Bernie seems like an old angry dude who cares about people and wants to shake up the system.

This is true, but even he made a huge mistake in 2020 by doubling down on all his most extreme positions. The Bernie of 2020 was not the Bernie of 2016 and I think it's largely because almost all factions of the left today seem to care far more about voicing the right position rather than actually getting something done. Who cares if you call it "Medicare for All"? Why do you have to voice support for the eventual abolition of private insurance? It's not like it's going to happen and it's not like it's popular, so why support it? The answer is because adherence to the orthodoxy is more important than real world action. That's why you have all these red avatars insisting that it's racist to suggest the Democratic Party condemn CRT, even though they also claim CRT doesn't exist in any of the schools to begin with.